Electronic immunization registries in Latin America: progress and

Informe especial / Special report
Pan American Journal
of Public Health
Electronic immunization registries in
Latin America: progress and lessons learned
M. Carolina Danovaro-Holliday,1 Claudia Ortiz,1 Shea Cochi,1
and Cuauhtémoc Ruiz-Matus1
Suggested citation
Danovaro-Holliday MC, Ortiz C, Cochi S, Ruiz-Matus C. Electronic immunization registries in Latin
America: progress and lessons learned. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2014;35(5/6):453–7.
abstract
Most of the current vaccination coverage monitoring in Latin America relies on aggregated
data. Improved monitoring has been shown to result in better coverage. Taking advantage
of current information and communication technologies, the use of electronic immunization
registries (EIRs) can facilitate coverage monitoring in terms of particularity (at the level of
the individual), timeliness, and accuracy. Countries in Latin America are rapidly developing
and implementing national EIRs to improve the monitoring of immunization coverage. These
countries are using a variety of approaches toward system conception and development;
integration with larger health information systems; different modalities for data collection,
entry, and transmission; and other key features. Some countries are exploring linkages with
mHealth (mobile health) for data collection and for automated recall/reminders. Evaluating
EIRs and sharing experiences are important to streamlining and improving national EIR
development, implementation, and use, and to ensuring its sustainability.
Key words
At the 2005 World Health Assembly,
a Resolution on eHealth was passed that
committed the World Health Organization (WHO) to “strengthen the ability of
Member States to address health problems by integrating eHealth applications into health systems in order to improve performance, care delivery, and
information mechanisms” and to “support c­apacity-building and to provide
technical assistance and policy guidance
on the implementation of eHealth applications” (1).
1
Comprehensive Family Immunization Unit, Department of Family, Gender and Life Course, Pan
American Health Organization, Washington, D.C.,
United States of America. Send correspondence to
M. Carolina Danovaro-Holliday, danovarc@paho.org
Rev Panam Salud Publica 35(5/6), 2014
Immunization, statistics & numerical data; medical records systems, computerized;
Latin America.
The computerization of immunization
registries is an important part of eHealth
in the context of national immunization programs. Experiences from different settings suggest that improving the
monitoring of immunization coverage
results in better coverage (2). The use of
electronic immunization registries (EIRs)
can improve coverage monitoring in
terms of particularity (individual followup of persons), timeliness, and accuracy.
Currently, most countries in the world
still rely on aggregated data on vaccine
doses given. Nevertheless, countries in
Latin America are rapidly progressing
toward developing and implementing
EIRs. This report summarizes the current
progress on EIR implementation in Latin
America and the main lessons learned
to date.
Electronic immunization registries
Back in 1965, James L. Goddard, then
Director of the United States Centers
for Disease Control, said “…perhaps in
the rather distant future, the capabilities
of electronic computers for storing and
retrieving information could greatly facilitate our immunization programs… A
nationwide computer system could put
us well on the road to efficient national
follow-up of births for maintenance of
immunization levels.”2
2
Proceedings
of the 2nd National Immunization
Conference, 1965. Contact NIPNIC@cdc.gov for
further information.
453
Special report
EIRs have been defined as computerized, confidential, population-based information systems that contain data on
vaccine doses administered. They allow
coverage monitoring by provider, vaccine, dose, age or other target group, and
geographical area, and provide outputs
to facilitate individualized follow-up
(3–5). These registries can be part of an
immunization information system that
also has other capabilities, such as vaccine and supply stock management and
adverse event reporting (6, 7).
The “ideal” EIR comprises: (i) enrollment at birth; (ii) a unique and unequivocal identifier (ID); (iii) vaccination provider, vaccine dose, and date;
(iv) mechanisms for aggregating data
at different geographical levels; and (v)
automated individualized follow-up
of vaccination schedules (3, 8). For the
Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has included two additional characteristics: (vi) data security
and protection of patient confidentiality
and (vii) data entry as close to vaccination as possible, in terms of time and
place. For the latter, the development
of electronic health records systems, the
adoption of standards for interoperability, and the increased availability of
Internet connectivity shortens lag time
between vaccine administration and
data entry. EIRs can also help support
decision-making on an individual-basis
and at the population level, and provides a better understanding of coverage
gaps, which enables more targeted vaccination delivery, social communication,
and advocacy strategies.
While immunization registries need
not be computerized to be effective at
the local level, EIRs can facilitate data
processing, especially when data entry
is done at the point of delivery. This
reduces the number of paper records
(e.g., tally sheets, docket, vaccination/
health card, and paper registry) and can
streamline overall workflow. Also, EIRs
can enhance proper utilization of mobile
technologies, e.g., linking the registry
to mobile data entry or automated reminder/recall messages sent via text
message to users and/or their caregivers
(2, 6).
Nationwide EIRs facilitate tracking of
a country’s transient or nomadic populations, such as some indigenous communities and seasonal migrant workers,
making it easier to retrieve their vaccination history, even when vaccination
454
Danovaro-Holliday et al. • Electronic immunization registries in Latin America
cards have been lost. Only by using
EIRs can countries monitor coverage in
every community, a goal set forth by the
Global Vaccine Action Plan, which was
approved by World Health Assembly in
2012 (9).
The data available in an EIR can also
be used to detect data quality issues;
monitor the vaccination status of each
birth cohort (by month of birth) and vaccination drop-outs; identify problems
in following recommended schedules
(vaccination timeliness and simultaneity); improve birth registration (10); facilitate the investigation of suspected
adverse events following immunization;
print new vaccination cards; and even,
facilitate vaccination effectiveness studies (11).
Progress in Latin America
Countries in Latin America consider
coverage monitoring and follow-up of
individual schedules as key components
of immunization programs. In all countries, some form of paper-based registry
exists. Mexico and Uruguay were the
first countries in Latin America to begin
using computerized national EIRs, in
1987 and 1991, respectively; Panama followed in 2006–2007 (3, 12, 13). All three
of these countries are currently work-
ing on updated versions of their EIRs
using newer technology platforms. For
Chile, 2013 was the first year when the
EIR was the source of coverage data for
routine immunization. While still relying on traditional aggregated data collection systems to obtain coverage, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Guatemala, and Paraguay are progressively implementing or piloting a
national EIR. The Dominican Republic
is advancing in the EIR development
process. El Salvador is including vaccine
doses given at birth in its electronic birth
records and Venezuela is starting with a
platform to follow yellow fever vaccination (Figure 1). This listing only includes
nationwide EIRs. Several countries have
EIRs in certain provinces/cities, or for
certain providers (e.g., non-government
organizations, Social Security) (14, 15).
EIR development has followed several modalities (Table 1), from in-house
(within the Ministry of Health) to complete outsourcing, including system
maintenance and hosting. Similarly,
technology platforms range from proprietary software to open source, but more
often use a mix. In most cases, the bulk
of the EIR investment has been made by
the countries themselves, though some
have worked with support from international/bilateral development organiza-
FIGURE 1. Status of electronic immunization registries (EIR) Latin America and the Caribbean,
July 2013
Social Security
Using EIRa
Implementing EIR
Developing a EIR
□ Not yet developing an EIR
Some states/provinces
Source: Country reports to FGL-IM/PAHO.
a In blue also: Social Security in Costa Rica, the city of Bogotá and the Department of Antioquia (except Medellín) in Colombia,
and some states/provinces in Argentina and Brazil.
Rev Panam Salud Publica 35(5/6), 2014
Danovaro-Holliday et al. • Electronic immunization registries in Latin America
TABLE 1. Modalities used for electronic
immunization registry (EIR) development by
countries in Latin America, 1987–2013
Modalities
Relation to national Health Information System (HIS)
• Module of a national HIS
• Stand-alone
Relation to other immunization systems
• Not related
• Part of a larger immunization information
system (stock management, epidemiological
surveillance, and adverse event monitoring)
Development and maintenance
• Ministry of Health itself
• Outsourced (from development to even hosting)
• Mix
Financing
• Government resources
• Partner support
Software
• Open source
• Proprietary
• Mix
Data entry (usually from paper)
• Vaccinator
• Data clerk
Data flow
• Web-based
• Offline with database synchronization
tions. The early computerized EIRs in
Latin America were applications developed for exclusive use by the immunization program and could not interoperate
or permit data exchanges with other systems, even within the Ministry of Health.
Most of the new EIRs are conceived as
modules of a larger health information
system, but are often one of the first such
modules. An example of the opposite is
Belize where the immunization module
is one of the most recent additions to the
Belize Health Information System, the
country’s web-based nationwide health
information system (16).
Even though most Latin American
countries using EIRs still collect the vaccination data on paper, the utility of
these computerized registries is likely
maximized when data entry occurs close
to vaccine delivery in time and place. For
example, for years the Social Security
Administration of Costa Rica has made
its EIR available on computers in their
health facilities where nurses administering the vaccines can also enter the
data. Where computers are not widely
available however, discussions still exist
about whom the best person to record
the vaccination is: vaccinator or dataentry clerk.
For an EIR to serve as a census of the
population, it is important to ensure that
Rev Panam Salud Publica 35(5/6), 2014
all people living in the area are in the
registry and that duplicates are avoided.
Regarding the ID, EIRs in Latin America
have used the national identification
number provided by the civil registry
office, a birth registration number or a
unique combination of names, parental
names or IDs, and date and/or place of
birth. Biometrics, such as fingerprints,
are being tested in some African countries (17), but have not been used in
EIRs in Latin America. Countries with
high levels of timely birth registrations,
such as Chile and Costa Rica, are linking
or considering linking their EIR to the
civil registration database. Most other
countries rely on registration at the time
of vaccination. Having comprehensive
EIRs can change the way childhood vaccination coverage is monitored, from
coverage rates based on annual fixed
targets to coverage rates by birth cohort,
as in Uruguay (13).
Early EIRs focused on childhood vaccination, however, newer ones are also
aimed at including all groups targeted
for vaccination. Though most electronic
registries have been developed to monitor routine vaccination, uses of EIRs
for vaccination campaigns have been
explored. During its 2010 pandemic influenza campaign, Chile deployed an
earlier version of its current EIR.
The coupling of EIRs with mHealth
(mobile health) is being explored. For
various health issues, data collection
using mobile devices has resulted in
improved collection time and data quality (18). Although the potential for using
mobile devices for vaccination data collection remains largely unexplored in
Latin America, a project using an opensource mobile application for immunization in Nicaragua (mVac) is worth noting (19). EIRs allow issuing automated
reminder/recall messages. Mexico is
working on vaccination SMS (i.e. “text”)
reminders, while others are discussing
projects to assess the effectiveness and
cost of such systems. These types of patient reminder/recall systems have been
shown to be effective in improving immunization rates, at least in developed
countries (20).
Lessons learned
In Latin America, the documentation
of experiences regarding EIR development and use, including failed system
implementations, is limited. Only data
Special report
produced by the EIR in Uruguay has
been externally evaluated (13). In spite
of the limited data from formal evaluations, challenges with EIR development
and implementation are being observed
and several lessons learned are emerging from the Latin American experience
(21). These have been mainly distilled in
meetings and through sharing of information between countries and PAHO:
(i) EIR implementation should not be
approached as a project, but rather as a
process that will take time and must be
closely monitored;
(ii) An EIR requires continuous human and financial resources for its maintenance and proper use; and
(iii) For an EIR to be accepted and the
data entered to be of good quality, the
EIR must be useful to vaccinators and
should facilitate work at the local level.
Other lessons learned include:
• Before starting EIR development, objectives and scope should be clearly
defined, and a collaborative and
transparent decision-making process
should be in place;
• Pros/cons of different options for system development should be weighed
before commencing development;
• Data flow, beginning with where and
by whom the data will be entered,
what form will be used to capture the
data, how duplicate records will be
managed, and how to ensure correct
and timely synchronization of databases for offline registries (where the
Internet is not widely available) need
to be defined beforehand;
• EIRs need to be flexible enough to accommodate new vaccines, new schedules, and special situations;
• The EIR should consider a unique
identifier so as to have only one
record per person and the system
should allow capturing the entire target population;
• Data security and confidentiality,
as well as legal considerations and
eHealth or eGovernment standards
need to be taken into account before
designing an EIR;
• EIR implementation needs to be systematically monitored, including the
satisfactions and problems faced by
the users, in order to address problems as soon as possible; and
• Training, sometimes starting from
how to use a computer, and support-
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Special report
ive supervision must be ongoing to
ensure data quality.
In addition to the need for systematic
evaluation of EIR effectiveness and associated costs, the exploration of the
relationship between EIRs and effective
utilization of mHealth will be important.
A recent study noted that in Latin America, nearly 70% of people have a mobile
phone and the 3G mobile phone network
is widening (22), making expanding the
use of mHealth for immunization a real
possibility.
PAHO has been working to support countries with EIR development
and implementation as a component of
their national immunization programs.
The PAHO Technical Advisory Group
on Vaccine-preventable Diseases (TAG)
guides the Organization’s work in this
area. In the context of ongoing efforts
to improve immunization data quality, in 2009, TAG recommended that
“countries using national computerized
EIRs…document their experiences, successes, and lessons learned in order
to share them with other countries”
(21). Following this recommendation,
PAHO has been providing technical
assistance to countries, with support
from various partners, and is facilitating specific exchanges of experiences,
where representatives from one country
visit another to learn about EIR. In February 2011, PAHO held a workshop to
share lessons learned on EIR development and implementation. The workshop included 81 participants from
20 Latin American countries and key
Danovaro-Holliday et al. • Electronic immunization registries in Latin America
partners (23). PAHO continues to
organize Web-based sessions where different EIRs are demonstrated; a session on the HL73 standards was also
conducted.
In July 2011, the PAHO TAG welcomed the progress made on national
EIRs, and added the following recommendations: (i) Countries and PAHO
should continue documenting and exchanging experiences on EIR development and implementation; (ii) EIRs
should aim to ensure interoperability
with other information systems; and
(iii) PAHO should work in coordination
with other sectors and initiatives related
to e-government, information and communication technologies, and birth registration, among others. Finally, in 2013,
besides recognizing the progress made
in EIR and reemphasizing its previous
recommendations, TAG issued recommendations aimed at monitoring implementation to ensure proper performance
and to validate that the needs of vaccinators at the local level are being met. TAG
also asked PAHO to explore the use of
innovative mobile technologies capable
of linking to immunization registries,
and to assess country experiences with
EIRs in order to continue fostering the
exchange of country experiences, lessons
learned, and good practices at the Regional and global levels (21). PAHO will
3
HL7, an abbreviation of Health Level Seven, is a
standard for exchanging information between medical applications. HL7 defines a format for the transmission of health-related information and has been
widely used in countries such as the United States.
continue working with Member States
to follow TAG recommendations and to
help countries of the Americas lead the
way on EIR use.
Conclusion
Countries in Latin America are moving towards developing and using EIRs
as a better way to monitor immunization coverage; they are also exploring
mHealth. Evaluating EIRs to define best
practices, effectiveness and costs, and
to systematize lessons learned for regional and global sharing are important
to streamlining and improving development, implementation, and use, and to
ensuring sustainability.
Acknowledgments. The authors wish
to acknowledge all the people working
to improve health standards in Latin
America, particularly those working
with immunization. The authors thank
all those who participated in the workshop in Bogotá, Colombia, in February
2011, to share lessons learned on developing and implementing electronic
immunization registries, and appreciate
their openness and willingness to share
their systems and their good and bad experiences. The authors also acknowledge
their partners, who help them facilitate
the work in and among countries. Finally, the authors thank Tony Burton,
Department of Immunization, Vaccines,
and Biologicals, WHO, for his critique
of an earlier version of this manuscript.
Conflicts of interest. None.
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La mayor parte de la vigilancia actual de la cobertura vacunal en América Latina se
basa en datos consolidados. Sin embargo, se ha demostrado que una mejor vigilancia
puede llevar a una mayor cobertura. Si se aprovechan las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación que existen en la actualidad, el uso de registros electrónicos de vacunación puede facilitar la vigilancia de la cobertura en cuanto a aspectos
particulares (a escala individual), pertinencia temporal y exactitud. Los países de
América Latina están elaborando e implantando rápidamente este tipo de registros
electrónicos a escala nacional con objeto de mejorar la vigilancia de la cobertura vacunal. Estos países están empleando diversos métodos para diseñar y crear el sistema;
integrarlo con otros sistemas de información sanitaria más amplios; considerar las
diferentes modalidades de recopilación, introducción y transmisión de datos, y otras
características importantes. Algunos países están explorando posibles vínculos con la
tecnología móvil en el ámbito de la salud (mHealth) para recopilar datos y generar recordatorios automatizados. La evaluación de los registros electrónicos de vacunación
y el intercambio de experiencias son importantes para racionalizar y mejorar el desa­
rrollo, la implantación y el empleo de estos registros a escala nacional, y garantizar
su sostenibilidad.
Inmunización, estadística & datos numéricos; sistemas de registros médicos
­computarizados; América Latina.
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